Changing Tides: Research Center Under Fire for "Adjusted" Sea-Level Data

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There is nothing to prove that betting rituals (like blowing on dice) are effective either, but perfectly rational people who are as intelligent as anyone wasting money in such a fashion can be expected to be, do it all the time.

I am on a very strict diet. My pleasures of food have been reduced. I found a delicious bread with no salt, some good peanut butter with very little salt, and a strawberry preserves that compliments the two magnificently. And yet, I call my mother to tell her I am coming over (I keep the makings at her house because I'm a pig when it comes to bread and peanut butter) so she can make my sandwich and put it in a plastic bag.

The sandwich tastes better when my mom makes it. I can't prove that, but it true.

Oh, and diet 7 up tastes better in a real glass instead of a plastic one, and coffee is better when sipped out of thin china cups instead of mugs.

There is nothing to prove that betting rituals (like blowing on dice) are effective either, but perfectly rational people who are as intelligent as anyone wasting money in such a fashion can be expected to be, do it all the time.

You're missing the point. Nils-Axel Mörner's position on dowsing is not rooted in superstition. He claims there is theoretical support for it and yet he resists challenges to prove it works. What this tells me is that he is either insane or dishonest.

I am on a very strict diet. My pleasures of food have been reduced. I found a delicious bread with no salt, some good peanut butter with very little salt, and a strawberry preserves that compliments the two magnificently. And yet, I call my mother to tell her I am coming over (I keep the makings at her house because I'm a pig when it comes to bread and peanut butter) so she can make my sandwich and put it in a plastic bag.

The sandwich tastes better when my mom makes it. I can't prove that, but it true.

Oh, and diet 7 up tastes better in a real glass instead of a plastic one, and coffee is better when sipped out of thin china cups instead of mugs.

What you're describing sounds a bit like placebo effect... which is the extent of what homeopathic "remedies" provide. As long as you don't claim it's more than placebo effect, you're fine.

Dr. Iris Bell of the University of Arizona College of Medicine in Tucson, one of the few homeopathy researchers to get federal funding, says the highest-quality trials — double-blind, randomized, placebo-controlled studies — have had both negative and positive results. Her own work on fibromyalgia has shown individualized homeopathy did work better than the placebo.

homeopathy has received little attention until recently, there are many other natural methods of healing that are better for a person have have much longer lasting affects than Western Medicine can provide.

Dr. Iris Bell of the University of Arizona College of Medicine in Tucson, one of the few homeopathy researchers to get federal funding, says the highest-quality trials — double-blind, randomized, placebo-controlled studies — have had both negative and positive results. Her own work on fibromyalgia has shown individualized homeopathy did work better than the placebo.

Fibromyalgia is a fake disease and so it's no wonder that fake remedies ease it.

Now, about this quack...

...

Donald Marcus from Baylor did an excellent job of presenting a review of the clinical evidence for homeopathy, accurately conveying that the evidence is largely negative. Iris Bell, a protege of Andrew Weil from the University of Arizona, had the job of distorting and cherry picking the clinical evidence to make is seem as if it supports homeopathy. Her strategy was typical, standard fare for CAM proponents.

First, she argued that we should accept clinical observations as reliable evidence. These are open-label or uncontrolled case reports, essentially the clinical experience of homeopaths. This is all a fancy way of saying anecdotal evidence, which over a century of scientific medicine has taught us is completely unreliable. I think anecdotes are worse than unreliable – they tend to lead us to conclusions we wish to be true rather than those that are true, and they can cause a false sense of confidence in the unwary.

It is not a surprise that homeopaths think their treatments work. As unreliable as anecdotal experience is, it is especially so if it confirms the beliefs of an ideological group desperate for recognition and legitimacy, and further a group dedicated to one treatment modality. (I don’t trust the experience of cardiac surgeons with cardiac surgery.) And to put one more nail in this coffin, I especially don’t trust the subjective experience of a group of practitioners that decidedly lack a scientific tradition.

You're missing the point. Nils-Axel Mörner's position on dowsing is not rooted in superstition. He claims there is theoretical support for it and yet he resists challenges to prove it works. What this tells me is that he is either insane or dishonest.

You aren't disproving what this man has said about sea levels. You are simply seizing on an academic eccentricity to discredit him.

Dr. Shockley argued that the higher rate of reproduction among the less intelligent was having a dysgenic effect, and that a drop in average intelligence would ultimately lead to a decline in civilization. He made a scientific case to support that. I'm pretty sure that you disagree with that position, whether your opinion is based in science or not. Either way, it doesn't alter the fact that Dr. Shockley is a Noble Prize winning scientist who co-invented the transistor and was a founding father of Silicon Valley.

You aren't disproving what this man has said about sea levels. You are simply seizing on an academic eccentricity to discredit him.

Dr. Shockley argued that the higher rate of reproduction among the less intelligent was having a dysgenic effect, and that a drop in average intelligence would ultimately lead to a decline in civilization. He made a scientific case to support that. I'm pretty sure that you disagree with that position, whether your opinion is based in science or not. Either way, it doesn't alter the fact that Dr. Shockley is a Noble Prize winning scientist who co-invented the transistor and was a founding father of Silicon Valley.

Of course TNO hates Dr. Shockley. That's because he's not a brainwashed follower of the AGW bullshit like TNO is.

Solve a man's problem with violence and help him for a day. Teach a man how to solve his problems with violence, help him for a lifetime - Belkar Bitterleaf